MUSICALS

OPERAS

PLAYS

TANNHÄUSER LA Opera Los Angeles 2007

DON CARLO LA Opera Los Angeles 2006

SIR JOHN IN LOVE English National Opera Coliseum 2006

LE NOZZE DI FIGARO Revival LA Opera Los Angeles 2006

TOSCA revival LA Opera 2005

COSI FAN TUTTE Britten Theatre The Royal College of Music 2005

ROMÉO ET JULIETTE Los Angeles Opera 2005 “Combine the lover’s white hot intensity with a keenly conceived production ever so adeptly directed by Ian Judge (a man who knows his Shakespeare) and you have a formula for resounding success. It’s a case of perfect timing and the perfect production team all coming together at the ideal moment. It may be a long time before another moment like this arrives.” - Daily Breeze “It was one of those dream happenstances: a night at the opera wondrously sung by all, conducted and directed with exactly the right spirit, staged with high imagination.” - Variety “Got sex? The Los Angeles Opera does – at least while its new production of “Roméo et Juliette” runs. The lovers mad, sometimes unclothed, carnality was merely the most memorable of the production’s charms. Sensitivity – this time to logic and good taste – was also displayed by the production team led by Ian Judge, a company regular." - Daily News “But notice the stage direction. We are in a play, Shakespeare no less, not an opera. Look at Tybalt taunting, asking for a fight. Romeo and Juliet are clearly loose-limbed kids, able to climb balconies in a single bound, transported by love like a couple of enthusiastic teenagers. (Their scene in bed, played discreetly in the buff, gets well-deserved laughs for its youthful athleticism.) Watch the way Romeo hugs Friar Laurence in gratitude, a child hugging a man. The acting, in short, is superb. In sum, this "Roméo et Juliette" is hours of pleasure and the best production of the season.” - Orange County Register

THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO (Le Nozze di Figaro) Los Angeles Opera 2004

"On opening night of Los Angele Opera’s handsome and intelligent new production of the masterpiece, the audience laughed spontaneously and easily. Judge has a mildly earthy take on the proceedings – his characters have a strong urge to join pelvises it seems – but more than that he is detail-oriented. The singers act this FIGARO as if it were a good play, and with ham acting and operatic poses strictly prohibited." - The Orange County Register "Judge is a reliable pro and he keeps the stage alive and the plot relatively clear." - Los Angeles Times "Judge’s solution was pure Shakespeare. He simply followed Hamlet’s advice: “Suit the action to the word”. You are not likely to see a FIGARO that has more dramatic credibility and sexy fun between Figaro, Susanna, Cherubino and the Countess than you will here." - Daily Breeze "It seems almost every season there is one opera in the company’s repertory that stands out above the rest, one that has everything right, and this season FIGARO is the one. It is an evening of wonderful music, of course, but delightful, believable acting as well, set against a simple but effective and brightly colored setting that works with ease. A Fabulous FIGARO" - City Beat

SALOME New York City Opera, Opera Pacific 2002/03 "Salome seldom fails to rouse an audience, and this first night brought a salvo of standing applause and cheers. It was a heady event." - Opera News

LA BOHEME Kirov Opera, Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg - 2001/2006

FALSTAFF Théatre du Châtelet Paris 2001

EUGENE ONEGIN Grange Park Opera - 2000

SIMON BOCCANEGRA (1881) Washington Opera - 1998 Dallas Opera - 2001

MEFISTOFELE English National Opera/Teatro Colon Buenos Aires - 1999

"How solemn an opera is Boito’s MEFISTOFELE? The question is posed urgently by Ian Judge’s spectacularly brilliant new production at the Coliseum. Production as genuinely creative as this is as exhilarating as it is rare. It makes more sense than any other I can envisage, and provided me with one of the most enjoyable operatic evenings for a long time." - The Spectator "That (Boito’s) fabulously tasteless score comes at you like a parody of every operatic cliché, is irresistible for the director Ian Judge. He’s a man after Mephistopheles’ heart; sceptical, unsubtle, and a bit of a showman. It’s the kind of production, dare I say it, that the piece so richly deserves." - Daily Telegraph "If you take my advice you will hasten to the Coliseum for ENO’s new production by Ian Judge of Arrigo Boito’s MEFISTOFELE. I believe you will enjoy yourself enormously if you can surrender to a wildly over-the-top, exuberant and gloriously tasteless staging of an opera that seems at times to be sending itself up." - The Sunday Telegraph "Ian Judge, a master of theatrical effect, embraced the work in all its gruesome excess with due zest and skill." - The Observer "ENO’s MEFISTOFELE is the most astonishing night in London!" - Time Out

SIMON BOCCANEGRA (1857) Royal Opera House, Covent Garden - 1997

"Of course the later Boccanegra is the greater work, but the original is perfectly valid as a middle period melodrama, and that is the way the producer Ian Judge approached it, with infectious theatrical sweep and particularly skilful direction of the chorus." - The Times

DON QUICHOTTE English National Opera - 1995 Victoria State Opera - 1997

"Judge’s QUICHOTTE is, for most of the time, a great big West End Show. And as with most of his work, it is very well done, zingily theatrical, beautifully organised, utterly professional. Everything works." - The Times "A new production by Ian Judge which is at once as brilliant, tragic and funny as Massenet could have ever imagined it to be." - Evening Standard "Anybody who has seen Judge’s populist Shakespeare comedies for the RSC or his ENO Faust will know what to expect: the sheer professionalism of everything he tackles is a joy and he has delicious surprises in DON QUICHOTTE. This is the kind of old fashioned theatre magic which the hair-shirted Powerhouse regime despised. Welcome back, and let’s hope that the management recognises how much ENO needs the popular flair of Judge." - The Sunday Times

COSI FAN TUTTE Ischia - 1993 Garsington Opera - 1998

"The director is Ian Judge whose clipped acerbic wit softened by boulevardier largess gives his work a distinctive colour. The result was a COSI of memorable sharpness." - The Independent

TALES OF HOFFMANN Victoria State Opera - 1992 Houston Grand Opera - 1992 Opera Pacific - 2000 Opera Australia - 2001 "Melbourne has joined the international opera community. Director Ian Judge pulled an original rabbit out of his operatic hat with yet another original musical arrangement. A lot of new material surfaced, and some familiar bits were missing, but the production was so spectacular that purists would find it hard to fault. Nothing about this production was as expected." - Opera News

THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (Der Fliegende Hollander) Royal Opera House, Covent Garden 1992 - 2000 "Ian Judge’s new production of THE FLYING DUTCHMAN for the Royal Opera is a brilliant display of stagecraft, and with his own adroit stage movement makes for a series of breathtaking dramatic coups." – The Observer "This is the best and best-looking new production Covent Garden has mounted in years." – The Sunday Express "The production looks at once complex and simple, spectacular and practical. Big effects are swiftly and surely worked up. The drama whizzes along. Mr Judge always comes up with a terrific show, and does so once more in his first Covent Garden venture." – The Financial Times "The boat transforms into the spinning room, the spinning room into the harbour; and the ingenuity of this theatre magic counts among the most exciting technical achievements I have ever seen in opera. This DUTCHMAN makes a stunning show. I said as much after the first night to the critic of Another Newspaper, who snapped back: “Show being the word.” And why not?" – The Independent on Sunday "Judge, who, with John Gunter’s ingenious, quasi realistic sets – triumphantly changed in full view by a stage management team on top form – puts on a show, in the West End or Broadway sense, unequalled in my experience of Dutchman-watching. We have become unaccustomed to such technical displays of theatrical wizardry at Covent Garden. Judge has staged it at face value, and I enjoyed it hugely, even a bit guiltily." – The Sunday Times "Gunter, Judge, and their platform are devilishly clever in a startling transition to the quayside partying of Act 111 – an exuberant explosion of music and light, garish orange streaming through the open windows and doors of sailors’ cottages. Now that really gave me a rush." – The Independent

ATTILA Opera North - 1991

"Ian Judge’s production is a thrilling revelation, elevating this rarity to something far more impressive than the music alone sometimes seems to deserve." - Yorkshire Evening Post "If you want an evening which constantly sends tingles down the spine and makes you grip your seat, hurry along to Ian Judge’s virile production." - Daily Telegraph "Where I thought Ian Judge’s production scored over the Royal Opera’s was in its unrelieved sense of flow, with one scene almost tumbling over the next in anxiety to maintain momentum." - Sunday Telegraph "Judge always puts on a good show, and this ATTILA is no exception; it does however give off a whiff of camp." - Financial Times "If this is camp, it’s the butchest camp I’ve ever seen!" - Opera Magazine

MADAMA BUTTERFLY Los Angeles Opera - 1991

"Something strange and different was going on in Act 1 of MADAMA BUTTERFLY director Ian Judge and designer John Gunter had stripped away the Japanoiserie to produce an Italian opera (on an American play) that happened to be set in Japan. The production is unconventional in ways that are effective and true to the opera." - The Chronicle "Ian Judge’s production takes the drama seriously, and it does take chances. The opening night audience in Los Angeles actually paid respectful, discerning attention to the music and the drama. There may be hope." - Los Angeles Times "Ian Judge (direction), John Gunter and Liz da Costa (sets and costumes, respectively) enjoyed great success. Dramatically framed in red lacquer, Butterfly's house, with cantilevered lookout deck, was set on a hillside of tall, poetic grasses." - Opera News

TOSCA LA Opera - 1989/2001

"The final bars of Puccini's Tosca provide a moment of epiphany for many opera-lovers, but with Catherine Malfitano in the title role and Ian Judge as stage director, the entire evening was anything but business as usual. All of the melodrama -- some of it outrageous, but mostly brimming with unusually perceptive nuances -- was presented without the usual bathos." - Opera News

BORIS GODUNOV Opera North - 1989

"Ian Judge has delivered for the Grand Theatre by far his best opera production to date." The Times "The combination of this austere drama and a director of Ian Judge’s proven theatrical flair paid off handsomely. It is very good indeed." - The Financial Times

TOSCA Opera North - 1988

"This is the best production of TOSCA since the Zeffirelli production was new at Covent Garden over a quarter of a century ago." - The Times "Realism, dramatic credibility and believable characters is what Ian judge’s new production of TOSCA is all about. He succeeds by a directness of purpose that rids it of the veneer of tired, traditional stock gestures." - Yorkshire Post "Ian Judge’s production goes some way towards recognizing that its improbable plot and deliberate pace are best treated as dramatic geometry; and since Judge is a master of dramatic detail, the result is often very effective indeed." - The Independent

LOHENGRIN Wiesbaden - 1988 Hessiches Statstheater

FAUST English National Opera/Opera North 1985/89 Victoria State Opera - 1990 Lyric Opera of Queensland - 1998 Opera Australia 2001

"Ian Judge’s production of FAUST strikes like a bolt of lightning. It is a model of how to interpret freshly a long-established favourite without distorting the original dramatic conception, and without being self-consciously clever or pretentious." - Daily Telegraph "Theatrically this ranks among the most striking shows in London, colourful, fast-moving, fizzing with invention, beautifully lit and with a vivid use of the chorus." - Evening Standard "It would probably be asking for trouble to suggest that Ian Judge’s engrossingly precise, intensely theatrical staging of Gounod’s FAUST is in many crucial ways superior to the work itself." - Sunday Telegraph "If the new FAUST of the Victoria State Opera is not the best opera production visually and vocally ever staged in Australia, it must be very close to it." - The Bulletin

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